Monitoring the sanitation status of African cities : workshop held at the University of Surrey (UK) on 29th June 2010 : draft report

Report of a workshop held to discuss the accuracy of current estimates of the sanitation status in African cities, and how monitoring procedures might be improved. Participants also considered whether it would be feasible and useful to monitor sanitation status at the individual city level. They also discussed related issues of information needs for capacity building and knowledge sharing within and between African cities. Key conclusions from the workshop were as follows:
1) Research is needed to identify improved metrics of urban sanitation quality, notably metrics that take into account the effectiveness of downstream systems for reducing disease burden. 2) The Unicef/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme might wish to consider the possibility of modifying its procedures for assessment of urban sanitation status, with the aim of adopting indicator sets that more accurately evaluate the effectiveness of the whole sanitation chain. 3) Knowledge-sharing initiatives like SWITCH Accra, in which a hub is created to collate and disseminate city-level watsan information resources, are very promising, and should be encouraged. 4) Drawing on the experience of the Indian Cities Sanitation Rating Scheme recently introduced by the Government of India (http://pib.nic.in/archieve/others/2010/may/d2010051103.pdf ), an analogous African Cities Sanitation Rating Scheme or schemes may be of value for stimulating urban sanitation progress.